


Falling (Through Ice) For You

by IzzeFire



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Ice Skating, Sharing Body Heat, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, literally just shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28830492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IzzeFire/pseuds/IzzeFire
Summary: Katara invites Zuko to go ice skating with her, and it goes terribly wrong. Then it doesn't.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	Falling (Through Ice) For You

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a drabble but it got away from me. Anyways, hope you're in the mood for fluffy Zutara first date, because that's what I made for dinner tonight.

Ice skating?

Zuko stared down at the text message from the cute girl from his biology class. They had seen a lot of each other during their long study sessions in the library, but this would be his first real date with Katara. She said she knew of a large pond near campus that was frozen solid in the winter months that would be the perfect spot. Despite never having ice skated before, Zuko readily agreed, not wanting to let her down.

He assumed it required good balance, and he was decent at skateboarding so there should be some translation of skill. Not to mention, a lot of people ice skated. How difficult could it be?

*** *** ***

That afternoon, he met Katara outside of her dorm. Like him, she was bundled up in her winter clothes. He also noticed she carried two pairs of ice skates: her own, and her brother’s pair for Zuko to borrow, which she handed to him as he approached.

They conversed happily on their way to the pond. Zuko was glad to be talking about something other than class material for once. Although they did tend to interrupt their study time with casual conversation, now their full attention was on each other.

As they finally reached the pond, Katara swiped the snow off a nearby bench with her navy blue glove and they both sat down to put on the skates. Katara’s brother’s skates were slightly loose on Zuko’s feet, but they were close enough.

“So, you’ve been ice skating before, right?” she asked him.

“Yes… just a couple times though…” he said. Luckily, she seemed not to notice the hesitation in his voice.

Katara smiled. “Oh, that’s alright! Just make sure to stay away from that spot in the middle.” She pointed to a slightly discolored part of the ice. “It looks thinner than the rest of the pond.”

He nodded and stood on the skates, wobbling slightly and catching himself. This would be fine. Completely fine.

“Ready?” she said as she stepped onto the pond with one skate and pushed off from the edge with the other, gracefully moving forward across the ice. She turned her head back to beckon him forward, her dark hair swirling in the breeze. She’s beautiful, he thought.

Taking a deep breath, he placed a foot on the ice and pushed himself forward, trying to mimic her motion… and failed spectacularly. As he pushed off, he leaned too far forward on his front skate, causing it to catch on the ice and send him sprawling face first on the pond.

He looked up to see Katara gliding over to him with a concerned expression. She made it look so easy! “Are you alright?” she asked.

“Yah, fine!” Embarrassed, he hurriedly tried to get his feet under him only to slip and topple over again.

Katara stifled a giggle behind her glove. “Need a hand there?”

Zuko’s cheeks colored. “I… guess I’m a little rusty.”

She laughed and pulled him up by the elbow, looping her other arm around his back to steady him.

“Just try to balance on the skates,” she said and she slowly started moving again, still holding Zuko’s arm.

He managed to keep fairly steady, proud of himself for at least moving upright on the ice, even if he was just being pulled along by Katara. They glided around the pond together for a few minutes before a bump in the ice disrupted Zuko’s balance and he tripped, falling into Katara and wrapping his arms around her waist to steady himself. She bent her knees and skidded to a stop, but miraculously did not fall. If Zuko wasn’t so focused on not falling, he would have seen her blush.

“You sure you’ve been skating before?” she teased.

“... no,” he said quietly, still clutching her waist for support.

She laughed and helped him catch his balance again. “Why didn’t you say so? Were you really just going to try and fake it?”

He blushed again. “Yah, I guess.” Before she could say anything else, he quickly added on. “You seemed so excited to come here. I didn’t want to ruin it.”

She blushed right back at him. “Well, I could always teach you.” A smirk. “We’d have to come here together more often then.”

“I wouldn’t mind that.”

She laughed and took his elbow, and they continued circling the lake together.

“Hey I think you’re getting the hang of this!” Katara said. “Wanna try on your own?”

“I’m not-”

“I’ll give you a push, come on!”

She gave him a gentle shove on the back and he was moving across the lake on his own. He had to lean forward to catch himself, but otherwise slid across in a straight line.

This did, however, create a new problem. Zuko didn’t know how to stop. And he was heading straight for the discolored patch of ice Katara had warned him about.

“Uh… Katara? A little help?” he called out.

He heard the scraping of her skates as she approached from behind, but he didn’t turn to look, fearing it would cause him to lose any remaining control he had. She eventually reached him, trying in vain to steer him away from the thin patch with a sharp tug on his elbow. Too sharp.

He yelped as he fell into her, and they both crashed heavily down into the ice. Or rather, through the ice. Zuko felt that dreaded crunch as the ice broke underneath him before the sting of frigid water overwhelmed his senses. He quickly grabbed for the intact edge of the frozen pond and moved to help Katara, but she had already done the same.

“Katara,” he gasped. “I’m sorry, I should have-”

“Don’t worry about that now, we need to get out of the hole or we’ll freeze! Do you have anything sharp on you?”

He immediately understood her meaning and dug out his keys from the pocket of the skinny jeans he was seriously regretting wearing. Reaching as far as he could across the pond’s surface, he jammed the keys into the ice and dragged himself out of the water. Hurriedly, he shifted around on his belly to face Katara, and helped pull her up by her elbows. “Thanks,” she said through chattering teeth.

They lay there on the ice for a moment, gasping and shivering. Katara laughed, causing Zuko to turn to her in surprise. “Well, that was definitely my most exciting ice skating outing! I’d say it even tops the time I tripped Sokka into a snowbank!”

“Aren’t you… upset at me?”

“Well, you didn’t do this on purpose, did you?” she said, gesturing broadly at their situation.

Zuko shivered again in his soaked clothes. “Hell no.”

“Then you are forgiven.” She chuckled again. “Besides, I pushed you into the thing. Speaking of, we should probably get off this pond. My dorm is much warmer and I can steal some of Suki’s hot chocolate. Let’s go.”

As they began sliding on their stomachs away from the hole, Zuko realized she had just invited him to her room. Was she just trying to be polite? It was a long walk back to his place, and he didn’t want to know what she thought of him now. Not only did he fail miserably at ice skating; he’d also caused them to fall through the ice. Oh no… did he just ruin the skates too? Stupid stupid stupid… 

Finally, they made it back to the bench by the pond and switched out the skates for snow boots. “Hey, at least our boots are still dry,” Katara teased, lightly elbowing him. She was right. It made their walk back slightly more pleasant. Zuko wanted to apologize again, but he and Katara both found themselves too freezing for conversation.

By the time they made it back to Katara’s building, the winter breeze had frozen their soaked clothes nearly stiff. Zuko could have cried in relief when the door opened and the warm air inside rushed out to greet them. After an awkward elevator ride full of confused stares of other (not wet and frozen) students, Katara brought him to the door of her room.

She pushed the door open, and they found themselves standing right in front of Katara’s roommate, who was lounging on her purple bean bag and reading a bulky textbook propped up on her knees. “So, did you guys decide to go swimming instead?” she teased.

Katara rolled her eyes. “We didn’t really decide, it just happened.” She gestured to the girl on the floor. “This is Suki, my roommate.”

Suki smiled and stood up from her seat. “And you must be Zuko! I’ve heard a lot about you.” Zuko thought he saw Katara shoot her a look but he wasn’t sure.

Still shivering, she shed her soaked jacket and laid it out by the heater along with her gloves, hat, and scarf. Zuko copied her.

“Hey Suki, has Sokka left any of his clothes lying around?” Katara asked.

Suki rolled her eyes. “All the time,” she replied, tossing over a pair of navy blue sweatpants. “Anyways, I have a study group at the library soon, so I’m gonna go…” Did she just wink at Katara? Zuko swears he saw her wink.

Katara shooed her out and shut the door.

Zuko had no idea what to say now. Should he offer to leave to give her an out? But that might seem rude. Although it was also rude of him to intrude after ruining her day. Maybe… 

She tossed her brother’s sweatpants to him, interrupting his thoughts. “Here, you should put something warm on,” she said, grabbing some of her own clothes from her closet.

“Are you sure…”

“Oh, don’t worry, you can have my robe too,” she said, handing it to him.

“Thank you, but… you don’t have to. I don’t know if your brother would want me borrowing these.”

“Well, he shouldn’t have left them all over my floor then. Come on, you need to change into something warm.” With that, she shut the bathroom door, presumably to change. He quickly changed into the sweatpants and bathrobe, almost laughing at how ridiculous he felt standing shivering in his date’s dorm room wearing her fluffy turquoise bathrobe and her brother’s sweatpants.

The bathroom door opened and Katara emerged wearing red pajama pants and a large blue hoodie. She laughed a little at him. “Not a bad look,” she teased, nudging him with her elbow.

He flushed slightly, unsure of how to respond.

Luckily, Katara didn’t notice as she was already rummaging through Suki’s desk drawer. “So, want some hot chocolate? I don’t know about you but I’m still freezing!”

“Sounds good to me,” he answered, still awkwardly standing in the middle of the room.

“Good choice,” she said, picking up two mugs. “Do you wanna look for something to watch while I get this ready?” She nodded her head towards the TV in the corner.

Azula and her friends thought his taste in media was atrocious and reminded him of this often, but Katara didn’t need to know that. “Sure… I’ll look for something.”

He plopped down on the beanbag by the TV and started scrolling slowly, secretly waiting for Katara to sit down and decide for him. It was her room after all, not to mention how badly he’d already messed up their outing.

The microwave beeped, and she brought two mugs of hot chocolate with her. Before she could sit down, Zuko moved onto the floor and motioned for her to sit on the beanbag.

She paused and gave him a confused look. “What are you doing on the floor?”

“Oh… I thought you wanted the beanbag.”

“Well the beanbag is big enough for two, and it’s a lot more comfortable than the floor. I mean… if you want to, of course.”

“Oh, sure!” Oh no, that was too enthusiastic, wasn’t it…

Katara didn’t seem bothered though; she simply sat down to one side and patted the spot next to her.

Zuko accepted the offer, and soon found himself right next to Katara, so close that he could feel her faint shivers from their surprise swim. Without missing a beat, she began interrogating him over his choice in movies, and they eventually decided on one. Zuko was surprised to find that her tastes were fairly similar to his. At least he’d have someone else on his side if he ever introduced Katara to his sister.

As the movie went on, Zuko noticed Katara gradually shifting closer to him and wondered if it was intentional. Assuming it might be a hint that she wanted more space, he carefully shifted slightly away from her.

“Oh sorry, am I crowding you?” she asked. “I have to admit though, you’re pretty warm.”

Though still chilled from the icy pond himself, he really did begin to feel warm after that comment. “Oh, um… thanks.” He paused. Wait did she- “Do you want me to…” he trailed off, raising an arm slightly.

She smiled. “I wouldn’t mind that,” she answered, taking his offered arm and looping it around her shoulders.

“Are you still cold?”

Katara chuckled and relaxed into the embrace. “Much better now. You know, I’m actually kind of glad you smashed us through that ice.”

He smiled, though she couldn’t see it.

After several minutes of watching the movie in silence, he looked away from the screen and down at Katara. Her head was resting against his shoulder, eyes closed, and she breathed deep, even breaths that lightly tickled the strands of curly hair hanging in front of her face.

Maybe things were off to a good start after all.

**Author's Note:**

> What movie are they watching? You decide.
> 
> (Also "but there was only one beanbag" I couldn't resist)
> 
> AND by the way, if you ever do fall through ice, the thing with the keys is actually good to know. It can be difficult to get a grip, so using something sharp like keys/knife/etc. can help you pull yourself out.
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Say hi on tumblr: @spicyswordlady


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